Post News Network
Baripada, June 13: A mentally-challenged youth is struggling to lead life in a locked thatched house for the last 20 years in an inaccessible village in Khunta block of Mayurbhanj district. Thanks to the abject poverty and backwardness.
Dushamani Nayak, an elderly lady, has been staying with her mentally-challenged son Rabindra in a shanty for decades in Nuasahi of Badakaranjia village that is surrounded by jungles and nullahs. She is unaware about the whereabouts of her husband Gopal, who had gone to a weekly market 28 years ago, and did not return.
Since then, the mother of two has been shouldering the burden of the family alone. She reared the family by working as daily labourer. However, ill fate struck her when her elder was affected by mental disease.
She could not provide timely treatment due to poor financial condition. With no money to treat her son, over two decades now she had no other option but to lock him inside a room to get rid of his abnormal behaviour.
Dushamani says she is unable to provide him food as most of the time she cannot attend to her work leaving her disabled son alone. Often, when Rabindra feels hungry, eats mud, she added.
Meanwhile, her younger son Surya has found a job as a labourer outside the state to support her mother.
According to Dushamani, at the initial stage of her son’s mental disorder, the local Anganwadi centre had issued a report confirming his mental disease. But, her several requests to the block administration to get financial assistance went in vain.
However, the family got a ray of hope when secretary District Legal Services Authority M Ishwar Rao Kumar directed his subordinate Sushil Kumar Patra to look into the issue. Patra met the family and interacted with Rabindra.
Patra said, had the administration taken timely decision for treatment of the youth, he would not had to lead a life of confinement. He assured of providing all possible assistance from the government.
That apart, actions would be taken against the officials who are found guilty of having an indifferent attitude towards the treatment of Rabindra, added Patra.